After 12 days into the NBA season, we have seen 93 NBA games; approximately 7.5% of the 1,230 total regular season games. This suggests that each team should have played an average of 6.2 games. Of these 93 games, the distribution of games played is given as follows: 8 Games: Atlanta (7-1) 7 Games: Golden State (7-0),…
When a basketball team employs a zone-type of defense, they are attempting to remove a specific element from the opposing team’s arsenal. For example, the 2-3 zone defense attempts to pack the lane by placing a strong defensive player in the center of the lane; a basket defender, if you will. This type of defense…
So far this season, the NBA has played 38 total games of the season’s 1,230 possible games. For these 38 games, we observe a total of 76 game scores across all teams. The observed 76 scores yielded some high results: 139, 136, 134, 132, 122, and 120; as well as some low results: 85, 78,…
Recently, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs played to a frenetic 112 – 106 OKC win on October 28th. It was one heck of a statement to open the year for the NBA as the Thunder returned to the court as a complete, healthy unit; the first time since February of last…
With the 2015-16 NBA season getting underway tonight, we take a look at previous year data and attempt to extrapolate an expected number of wins for each team this season. The method we propose is conservative in that we rely on previous season possession data and opening day rosters for each NBA team. First, we…
With the 2015-16 NBA regular season slated to open on October 27th, just a mere ten days away, we figured to take a look at possession data from seasons past. An NBA possession is effectively the time that an offense gains possession of the basketball until the time the ceases to maintain possesion. There are…
Recently, Dikembe Mutombo, Jo Jo White, and Spencer Haywood were inducted as players into the NBA Hall of Fame. Mutombo, an eight-time NBA All-Star and four-time Defensive Player of the Year, is the second all-time in blocks; playing in the NBA from 1991 through 2009. White, a seven-time NBA All-Star and two-time NBA champion, set…
With the recent announcement that the NBA is changing the format of playoffs by seeding the playoffs based solely on records, we take a look at the complexity and reasoning for dividing out the 30 NBA teams into 6 divisions. For Major League Baseball and the National Football League, divisions serve a major role in scheduling. An…
In our last post we saw that we can use a simple nonparametric statistical method, called the kernel density estimator, to build nice looking scoring charts. As we saw, these charts give a better idea of the distribution of the scorer when compared to the basic shooting chart used for several decades past. In this post,…
Shot charts have been used for decades, used to identify locations where players make field goals and to identify locations where players give up field goals. Decades ago, each player has their own chart with four quarters. Typically if a field goal is made, the player has a ‘o’ is placed on the relative location on…
Squared Statistics: Understanding Basketball Analytics 